The three-time award submitted Cubicle Post offers up a humorous, sometimes sardonic (and almost never insightful), look at the life of newspaper reporter Scott Pukos.

A Christmas to remember

Comment

About this blog

By Scott Pukos

The three-time award submitted Cubicle Post offers up a humorous, sometimes sardonic (and almost never insightful), look at the life of newspaper reporter Scott Pukos.

Recent Posts

Dec. 25, 2013
11:35 p.m.

[caption id="attachment_17" align="alignnone" width="640"] My family, along with Ginger the dog, after an eventful Christmas 2013.[/caption]

This was not a typical Christmas.

It started off normal enough — presents, smiles, coffee, sugary snacks, more sugary snacks. After the morning festivities, we climbed out of our den of discarded wrapping paper and made our way to my grandmother’s house in Perry, Wyoming County.

This party started off normal too. After all, stories that are told for decades to come always seem to have an innocuous beginning.

Somewhere between my third and fourth bite of kielbasa, I realized something was wrong. There was a car in my grandma’s driveway, and the person inside this vehicle started to honk his horn. He was not in great shape. Of course, we didn’t realize this at the time, so there was a sense of curiosity — and perhaps a little concern — inside our cozy living room.

That concern ballooned as the man stumbled into the entryway of the house, and immediately collapsed. My younger cousins were swept into a different room as the man groaned loudly and writhed painfully on the floor.

At first, it was hard to decipher what had happened, but this is what we learned: The injured man* is from Perry, and only a few years older than me. His brother was in the grade above mine at York Central School. He was near the Highbanks Camping Area, in Letchworth State Park Wednesday afternoon, when he fell through a layer of ice and into a portion of the Genesee River. His dog, Ginger, also temporarily fell in the icy river.

To me, this next part is pretty amazing. With his body temperature dropping to dangerous levels, the injured man managed to climb out of the water and make his way to his car. He lost his backpack, camera and phone, but managed to keep his car keys. With his survival instincts in high gear, he got in the vehicle and drove to the nearest sign of help — which happened to be our Christmas party.

This is where the second amazing part of this tale kicks in.

I couldn’t be more proud of how my family reacted to this emergency situation. I’ve written about similar situations before, but still, you’re always surprised when it’s your turn to play the part of hero.

My cousin Alex — an Eagle Scout — didn’t hesitate to go outside and help this stranger get to safety. My cousin’s husband, Rusty, made the 911 call, and stayed in the man’s car to make sure Ginger was also safe. Inside, my mom, aunts, uncles and other family members helped the man remove his soaked clothing, and coat him in any blanket we could find. My brother Googled ways to treat potential hypothermia to make sure that we weren’t missing a key piece to saving this life.

There’s no melodrama in that previous sentence either — this was a dire situation. I don’t know how clear this man was thinking at this point, but he tried to converse with us, and even tried to add some levity to the situation. He was also clearly in pain.

“I just want to keep my feet,” he cried.

We couldn’t do much more aside from applying additional blankets, along with comforting words, before the paramedics arrived. The members of the Castile Emergency Squad are all volunteers — their Christmas was also temporarily halted for this occasion. The call came in at 1:27 p.m., and they arrived at Schenck Road around 2 p.m.

The man was loaded onto the ambulance; the crew wasn’t aware of Ginger’s presence, so she stayed with us. The paramedics explained that a bubble — which I believe is called a hypothermia blanket — was used to heat the patient. In the ambulance, his core temperature was 93 degrees. Obviously, this is not good.

Luckily, today was not a day for an unhappy ending. As one of my uncles later said, “this was not his day to die.”

While the man is spending the night in the hospital, family members said it appears he will be okay. Needless to say, the rest of our Christmas party was not a typical affair. We sang songs, and ate dessert, but the conversation was dominated by recaps of the day’s events.

There’s no doubt that, for us, this will be one of those “remember that one Christmas …” stories that are regurgitated for years. Whether this affirms your belief in the survival instincts of human beings, or your belief in something else — a higher power perhaps — one thing is for certain, this is a day that, for us, will not be forgotten. And rest assured, the final few bites of my kielbasa were divine.

* — I’m uncertain how many family members and friends were notified of the incident, so I’m not posting any names, at this point